Mägo De Oz- Hechizos, Pócimas y Brujería (2012)

Reviewed by Sebastian Kluth

After having covered a very bad Spanish release with the latest stinker from Tierra Santa, let’s take a look on a rather different effort from another famous Spanish metal band, Mägo De Oz”. The folk and Celtic metal band has been around for twenty-five years now and released Hechizos, Pócimas y Brujería after a short break last year. In comparison to Tierra Santa, which created some decent songs in their earlier years, I had some problems with the high-pitched, overwhelming tone of vocals by this band’s previous singer José Andrëa, who was in the band for fifteen years. The more grounded but still versatile new vocalist, Zeta, who came to the band around the same time as the new bassist and new keyboard player, impresses me much more, and truly convinced me on this, his first release with the band.

Mägo de Oz is a band where the vocals are only one element amongst many others. They have nine band members, including a violin player and a musician for wind instruments such as bodhrans, flutes, and whistles. The mixture of folk and power metal on the new album should immediately appeal to fans of bands like Italians Elvenking or the French Les Trois Fromages, with highly danceable, fun songs like “H20z” (that also has a very humorous video clip). The band also offers more metal-driven tracks, like “El Libro De Las Sombras” or “Xanandra”, which should please those who adore DragonForce, Helloween, or Rhapsody of Fire.

My personal highlights are others still, like the classic hard and progressive rock-inspired “No Pares (De Oír Rock & Roll)”, that sounds a little bit like a folk version of Deep Purple with its dominating keyboards. The operatic female vocals in the playful middle part come as welcome surprise as well. “Brujas” convinces with a darker atmosphere, excellent guitar solos, and a very smart use of female vocals. The closing title track, however, is the true highlight of this album. It features the band’s signature Celtic folk influences, including  excellent flute play, emotional guitar solos, and many gripping changes of atmosphere in over eight minutes of stunning music.

If you can get your hands on the limited or digital version of the record, you should definitely do so. “Piratas” is a dark and cinematic track that perfectly fits the topic. This song would fit any soundtrack to a pirate movie. It reminds me a little bit of the German medieval rock band Cultus Ferox, in fact. A big surprise comes with the instrumental “Obertura Xanandra”, which is an excellent progressive metal track that could also have come from Dream Theater, and that easily beats the instrumental overture of that band’s last self-titled record. That’s nothing I would have expected from a Spanish folk metal band, but they really prove here what excellent and varied musicians they are.

If you want an outburst of creativity centered on a vivid Celtic folk metal fun ride, this album should be yours by now.

4.25 // 5

The Vision Bleak - Witching Hour (2013)

Reviewed by Sebastian Kluth

The Vision Bleak is one of my favourite bands. They mix dark Lovecraftian lyrics with epic gothic metal, basing their music beautiful melodic vocals and a few occasional blackened shrieks, great guitar play varying between melodic mid-tempo riffs and faster parts with some thrash metal tendencies, and a powerful rhythm section. Cinematic symphonics add just the right atmosphere to the appealing music and never feel overwhelming. The band calls itself a horror metal band, and this is a perfectly apt term. Their music creates creepy scenery inspired by elegant classic horror literature instead of modern brutality and gore tendencies. These guys are the gentlemen of the gothic metal genre, and care about an authentic atmosphere without trying to shock you with tons of superficial violence like BlutEngel or Gothminister do. And that’s exactly why their unique approach is so intense. Their first record, The Deathship Has A New Captain, included a fresh wave of unforgettable horror anthems. Their second output, Carpathia – A Dramatic Poem, is not only the most authentic and intense concept record I’ve ever experienced, but my favorite album of all time.

After a mixed third record entitled The Wolves Go Hunt Their Prey (that had a rougher tone and threw some atmospheric elements overboard to replace them with harder riffs), the fourth album, Set Sail To Mystery, was a convincing return to old strength and the band’s most diversified album to date. Now, the German duo consisting of Allen B. Konstanz and Ulf Theodor Schwadorf, who have also been active in bands such as the epic neofolk cult band Empyrium, the morbid electronic gothic metal band Ewigheim, the more intellectually appealing project Marienbad, and the blistering black metal band Panzerkreutz among others, are back for the fifth output of their main band. This time, they deliver us a conceptual album about witches, as the title suggests.

Even though the new record isn’t a bad one, I feel rather disappointed by it. It feels too much like The Vision Bleak by numbers. It offers nothing truly innovating or surprising, the single songs are not catchy or intense enough to equal the songs from the first two albums, or even the last release. After the usual instrumental opening “Witching Hour”, the true heavy opener “A Witch Is Born”, has a great narrative vocal performance that introduces dark melodic vocals. At the same time, the track and its guitar riffs feel predictable, and the chorus is too simplistic to convince. This song represents the entire record very well: it has its moments and many trademark sounds, but the final result isn’t as impressive and original as it was eight years ago.

“The Blocksberg Rite” makes things better, and is by far the best song on the record. It includes appeasing, dark, and mysterious flute melodies, atmospheric organ sounds, and a great folk break towards the end of the song. This is the most innovating song on the entire record, and even the spooky vocal performance immediately grabs your attention. Another atmospheric and gripping track inspired by creepy folk elements is the apocalyptic “Pesta Approaches”, the second greatest track on this release. This vivid song varies from calm folk elements over slow to mid-tempo paced verses to blistering passages. The diversity is definitely there, but I’m missing the magical key element that keeps all these influences together and would make this song even better.

The other songs on the album aren’t all that bad, but are simply too predictable. The short and catchy “The Wood Hag” begins instrumentally appealing, but soon becomes repetitive. The chorus is also too simplistic to mess with the classics. The song’s music video, however, is one of the best I have ever seen. It was made by Fursy Teyssier of the spooky shoegaze and post-metal band Les Discrets. Be sure not to miss this if you’re interested in the album. The Type O Negative-influenced lengthy doomer “Cannibal Witch”, the faster and thrash metal inspired banger “Hexenmeister”, the overlong closer “The Valkyrie”, and the bonus track “The Call Of The Banshee” (where too repetitive verse riffs meet an atmospheric and majestic chorus) all have their moments as well as their weaker parts. After all, they simply can’t compete with the band’s glorious past. Even the instrumental bonus tracks of the deluxe edition are completely redundant and worthless for me.

In the end, Witching Hour is a good record with one excellent, one very good, and a couple of solid tracks that happens to interest me a little bit more or a little bit less depending on my mood. The record has a clear guiding line, a strong atmosphere, and some new elements – such as more dominating organ sounds or a few folk elements that I feel should have been used more. On the other hand, I’m missing truly majestic anthems that send shivers down my spine or that are crowned by passionate choruses that haunt me like a nightmare. This is what made the band’s first two albums so special, and the last effort very solid as well. The new record is overall better than The Wolves Go Hunt Their Prey, and not the band’s least convincing effort, but I know that they could have done better. Despite this letdown, there is no doubt that any gothic metal fan has to get this release as I don’t know any other record of that genre that would have come close to this output this year. From that point of view, The Vision Bleak are still a high quality band and the kings of their genre. If you don’t know them yet, you are definitely missing out a really intense dark ride.

3,75 // 5

Atrocity - Okkult (2013)

Reviewed by Sebastian Kluth

Atrocity is a very unique band from Germany that never fails to surprise, but sometimes to deliver. The band started its career by playing grindcore in the mid and late eighties before they became very successful with their first technical death metal releases, Hallucinations and Todessehnsucht. Since then, the band has continued its journey with sudden genre (and even language) changes from album to album until today, and have invited diversified guest musicians and singers over the years. As any familiar with the band will understand, Atrocity is one of the most diverse and eclectic metal bands ever, and it’s very hard to follow them. Of course, there are also a lot of hits and misses among their releases depending on your personal taste.

Now, the band has returned with the album Okkult, three years after the folk rock driven After The Storm. This record is the first part of a trilogy dealing with lyrics inspired by mythic and mysterious topics. The band sings about conspiracy theories, Freemasonry prophecies, witchcraft, and much more. The band has also created a very special project. They’ve recorded an exclusive bonus track for each of the three records, traveled to mystic historical places on three different continents where they hid the tapes of one of the three songs. Back at home, they destroyed all master tapes, and now invite the fans to go on a treasure hunt. The album’s special edition includes several hints at the place where the band hides their first exclusive bonus track. Once a fan finds one of the three songs, he or she can decide on his own what he wants to do with it: keeping it or publishing it on the internet.

As you might realize, the lyrics, as well as the treasure hunt concept, are quite intriguing, and so is the music on Okkult. Note that the band joined forces with Leaves’ Eyes’ Liv Kristine for a few songs, as well as with the Lingua Mortis Orchestra (conducted by Rage’s Victor Smolski) on almost all songs. For the more conservative minds here, I would like to tell you on a side note that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, and that the band has nothing to do with satanism or right winged ideologies, but that they simply are expressive and imaginative artists and story tellers.

Many tracks go into a new symphonic extreme metal direction. Imagine a mixture of MaYan’s debut release, the last few albums from Dimmu Borgir, and maybe a touch of early Therion. Take this mixture and increase its quality, and what you get is Okkult. The majestic opener, “Pandaemonium”, already impresses with a dramatic cinematic overture that could have been placed on a release from Moonspell or The Vision Bleak, before a dynamic death metal song kicks off after two minutes that takes no prisoners. The mixture of beautiful orchestral melodies, powerful choirs, harsh vocals, hard guitar riffs, pumping bass guitar, and incredible powerhouse drumming perfectly unites the beauty and the beast. The band has many more songs of similar quality on the album. The almost gothic-comedy feeling of “March Of The Undying” reminds me of a Tim Burton movie that meets a contemporary Dimmu Borgir or Screaming Savior song, with maybe a touch of the genius of the Japanese avant-garde metal band Sigh. The dark and blistering “Necromancy Divine” hits a similar vein, but has a more grounded, old school feeling reminding me partially of Venom or Slayer. The epic and majestic album closer “La Voisine” is an atmospheric masterpiece that perfectly catalyzes the strengths of Atrocity and the Lingua Mortis Orchestra.

But Atrocity would not be Atrocity if they hadn’t prepared a couple of surprises for us. “Death By Metal” is a pitiless old school death metal track in the vein of Grave that goes back to the band’s roots. The German “Satans Braut” reminds me of the Neue Deutsche Härte genre, and sounds maybe like a mixture of Rammstein and Samsas Traum with epic orchestral passages and a great guitar solo. “When Empires Fall To Dust” sounds surprisingly catchy and modern, and almost makes me want to dance. This song could have come from the Deathstars or a harsher version of Doctor Midnight & The Mercy Cult.

The whole record is kept together by the mystical topics, the orchestral elements, and the consistent, diversified and gripping high quality song writing. In the past, Atrocity has released a few great, many mediocre, and a few really bad records – but this is their absolute masterpiece in my opinion. The record definitely grows with each spin. My favorites on here are “Pandaemonium”, “Satans Braut”, “When Empires Fall To Dust”, and the best song is probably the closing “La Voisine”. If you consider yourself an open-minded metal fan, you should definitely dig this critically acclaimed and surprisingly great record. It may be a welcome change of genre and bring you some fresh inspiration. Hands down, this is at least the best extreme metal release of the year for me.

4.5 // 5